Hirrus didn’t have time to respond. A blast of energy surged out of Clive’s eyes. The Arcana filled Hirrus' awareness, blasting him for four thousand and eighty-six damage. Blinding. Consuming.

So this was why Clive’s weapon strike had seemed so meager. He wasn’t a physical fighter at all. Arcana was his weapon of choice, and he used it well.

The blast sent Hirrus reeling back.

It was bright, and it dazzled Hirrus' eyes. He found himself rubbing the tears from them.

Hirrus recovered enough vision to see Clive rushing in at him with his staff again. Through the spotty afterimage of the Arcana blast, he was unable to stop the weapon from chopping in at his knee. It dealt nearly a quarter of the Arcana’s damage, however.

Hirrus swiped out with his greataxe in retaliation, but Clive had already danced away. He fell back as soon as his strike landed, slipping out of Hirrus' reach.

As his eyes recovered from the blast, Hirrus got a view of how the attack had affected the room. The mat beneath his feet had been blackened, and he could see that the sooty residue of the blast filled a wedge of the room. He quickly discerned that the attack was a cone that emitted from the user.

Hirrus would have to try and stay close to Clive as the fight went on. Being close would mean that he could sidestep the cone where the attack was narrowest, and come out without a scratch.

Luckily, Clive’s orders had delivered to Hirrus the tools to accomplish that task.

“Are you done yet?” Clive asked in a smarmy tone. “Ready to turn tail and run?”

Hirrus made no response but to snarl, charging forward with his greataxe held high.

Clive tried to continue his retreat, but Hirrus activated his Pumped Kicks Arcana and used the move speed bonus to close the gap all the faster. His greataxe crashed in from the left, and while Clive’s stone staff interposed itself, deflecting the attack, the increased attack speed his Arcana granted meant that he was able to sweep the blade around again lightning-fast. Clive was faster still, though. The man ducked under the second strike.

Yellow-white sparks began to crackle before Clive’s eyes as he prepared another attack.

Hirrus paused for a single beat before lunging to the left to dodge the incoming blast. Clive, however, turned just as sharply, meeting Hirrus' eyes before another burst of energy came. It was another blinding flash, only this one struck like a physical blow. The force of it sent Hirrus skidding back across the room, nearly taking him from his feet. It dealt nearly five thousand damage. Hirrus quickly blinked the stars from his eyes, anticipating Clive attempting to follow up again.

True to his expectation, there was a blurry shape moving through Hirrus' distorted vision, and he didn’t hesitate.

He intercepted Clive’s charge with his greataxe, striking him squarely before the man could even launch his own attack. Hirrus' attack drew blood for six thousand six hundred and ninety-five of Clive’s hit points, but the pained grunt of the blow landing felt like the more satisfying reward.

“Good, good,” Clive said with a chuckle. “You’re doing great.”

“What are you talking about?” Hirrus demanded, trying to pretend like his vision wasn’t still spotted to the point of near-blindness.

“You’re a good fighter,” Clive clarified. “I’m complimenting you. It’s good for a man to know his place, after all. To know what he is and where he belongs.”

“Do you know where you belong?” Hirrus demanded, raising his axe. The threat felt empty. “Because if you would only step forward one more time, I’ll send you there.”

“Yes! That’s what I’m talking about!” Clive’s voice seemed to be moving. The padded floor meant that Hirrus couldn’t hear his footsteps, and so he tried to follow the sound. “Violence! The rule of beasts! That’s all a brute like you can fall back on. You can’t appeal to my reasoning or morality. The only way you can make me regret whatever harm I did is by harming me in turn. I don’t even know why you’re here. All you’re capable of is battering me down.” Clive let out a little cackle at that. “You’re going to fail at that, but I can respect the messaging.”

“I told you,” Hirrus snapped. “I am here to avenge what you did to Yenon!”

Clive laughed, a derisive thing that tried to cut to Hirrus’ core. “You think I remember Yenon?”

Hirrus' vision finally cleared enough to notice that the man was much farther to the left than he had thought.

Orienting on his position accurately made Clive laugh all the harder.

“This is why you’re failing! Don’t you get it? Ask yourself - really ask yourself - what your goal is here. Go ahead, really think about it. I know the answer, natch, but I want to know if you can come up with it.”

Hirrus grimaced, following Clive as he circled around the room.

The man had a cocky swagger, and Hirrus couldn’t quite blame him. Despite having slammed his axe into him a couple of times, Clive wasn’t frightened. He wasn’t looking to run. He was acting like a housecat with a cornered rodent.

Clive viewed him not as a threat on the verge of liquefying him, but as prey he could handle at his leisure.

“No, really.” Clive stopped circling, giving a go-ahead gesture. “Tell me what your goal is. Go on. Say it.”

“Justice,” Hirrus said, “I want to-”

“Nope.” Clive laughed. The sound was starting to get on Hirrus’ nerves. “Not even close.”

Hirrus growled, and he could feel his lip lift from his teeth like a beastly snarl. “I’m here to avenge the fallen. To make you and yours pay for what you did to my home and my friends!”

“Much closer,” Clive said, his voice taking on a sing-song tone. “But still, no cigar.” Clive leaned forward, grinning a wide, toothsome grin. “You’re here to do the only thing you know how to do. Be a big pile of muscles that rolls around and bumps into things. You’re just here to do violence.”

“Then come closer. Let me do some violence.”

Clive smirked and opened his mouth to say something, but Hirrus didn’t wait for him.

With his vision fully recovered, he was able to lunge across the room. Pumped Kicks still had a few seconds left, letting him cross the distance before Clive could do more than raise his staff defensively. Hirrus' axe chopped straight down, carving into the front of his foe, the blade leaving a huge gash down Clive’s chest. It dealt six thousand six hundred and seventy damage, and while Hirrus' expectations told him that against even the stoutest adventurer, that would have been the last of him, Clive stayed standing, dancing away.

Blue-green sparks flared before Clive’s eyes again. The distance was too great. Hirrus threw himself back and to the side, diving face-down to the ground to try and get clear of the oncoming blast.

The heat and light of the attack passed over him, through him, but somehow Hirrus didn’t take damage from it. When he looked up, he saw that he was still well within the blackened cone across the floor.

That was important.

Hirrus had somehow evaded the Arcana despite being well within its bounds.

He didn’t have time to examine it closer, however. Instead he scrambled to his feet, charging at Clive again.

In the moments where Hirrus had been on the ground, Clive had been establishing some distance between the two. Blue-purple lights were sparkling around his eyes, but Hirrus was sure he just needed one more strike, and Clive would be done for.

The blast of energy from this Arcana was different though. It hit him for just shy of six thousand damage, but it also caused his joints to lock up. His body was brought to an abrupt halt that set his head spinning.

Hirrus was aware of a sudden debuff the Arcana inflicted upon him. It was called Calcified, and immobilized him for a whopping 45 seconds.

Focusing on the debuff told him that taking damage would end its effect. Of course, now that he was locked in place by it, Clive would be unwilling to free him.

“Now then,” Clive said, straightening the collar on his overshirt again. “I believe I was talking to you, before you so rudely interrupted me.” He ran a hand down the cut across his chest.

Hirrus noted that it looked like the wound was slightly smaller than it had been a moment earlier.

Somehow, Clive was recovering from his wounds, a little at a time.

Hirrus tried to respond, snapping something back at Clive. But like his body, his jaw wouldn’t respond. Nor would his tongue.

Instead, he just glared at the adventurer.

“Let’s talk about your goals.” Clive’s staff vanished into his inventory as he stepped back, leaning against the nearest padded wall. He regarded Hirrus with an expression only one step short of outright disinterest. “You and I are a lot alike. More than you might think. We’re here for the same thing, after all.” He gestured around him. “I enjoy the prestige and all that, just like I’m sure there’s some lesser motivation that you enjoy as well, but we’re here for the same thing.

“If you had approached me and attempted to reason, to talk, to have a discussion, I might have believed you when you said such a silly thing as judgment. But you went straight to violence. Your attack - as much a display of dominance as it is - isn’t going to change anything.” Clive waved a hand through the air. “Think about the people you’ve killed so far. Do any of them understand why it happened? Because you’re about to kill me, and I sure as fuck don’t.” He shrugged. “What happened in Yenon? What did I do? What was my part in this horrible offense? What should I have done differently? You can’t make me change if I don’t know what I did wrong.” Clive tapped a finger to his chin, exaggeratedly. “All I - and anyone else in the guild - know is that some asshole is after us. We don’t know why. We’re not going to learn any sort of lesson if this is the way it’s presented to us.”

Trying to speak again proved fruitless. Hirrus couldn’t do anything. He just had to stand and listen to Clive wax poetic about the flaws in Hirrus' approach.

It only made him want to murder the adventurer more.

“But, I respect it,” Clive said with a thin smile. “As I said, I’m like you. I’m only playing this game because I can express my anger at the world by crushing it before me.” He held up a hand and slowly clenched it into a fist. “But I would never hide behind a false claim of justice for it. It’s a waste, especially when you’re so gifted. You could just say that you’re attacking us to prove you can. Or that you think we’re assholes. Or even that it’s just for the raw satisfaction of seeing us driven before you. But don’t hide it.” He straightened up and turned towards the door. “We are men of action. Lies do not become us.”

Hirrus could only watch as Clive moved to the double-doors and threw them open. He was only going to be under the effects of Calcification for a few more seconds, but he could already see his target slipping through his fingers. Especially since there were eight adventurers waiting on the landing beyond the doors.

“Clean that up,” Clive said to them with a wave of his hand towards Hirrus as if he were no more than filth on the floor. “And once that’s done, someone should tell Fidelis that the threat has been dealt with.” Clive looked over his shoulder, briefly, and smiled at Hirrus. “I’m going to go run a bath.”

With that Clive was gone, having pushed his way through the mob of adventurers and shut the door.

Just as Hirrus’ joints unlocked.